Probation granted in Joplin man's sex offender registration case

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·1 min read

Jun. 17—Judge Dean Dankelson granted a 62-year-old Joplin man a suspended sentence and probation this week on a sex offender registration violation.

James N. Billings had pleaded guilty May 3 in Jasper County Circuit Court to a charge of failure to register as a sex offender in a plea agreement dismissing a separate felony count of being present in a public park with playground equipment and a misdemeanor count of domestic assault.

The judge sentenced Billings at a hearing Monday to two years in prison for the registration violation but suspended execution of the sentence and placed him on probation instead for five years.

Billings was convicted of lewd acts or proposals to a child in 1985 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is required by Missouri to register as a sex offender in the county where he is residing, according to court records.

Billings was charged with failing to keep his registration up to date at the end of July 2020, a little more than a month after he was arrested for being in Memorial Park in Webb City in violation of another provision of the state's laws governing convicted sex offenders.